Apple Names John Ternus CEO, Nike's Boston Marathon Fumble, Drake's Iceman Rollout & Ad Age A-List Winners: Chili's, Rethink, Mother & Rocket CMO Jonathan Mildenhall

Nike posted a sign in its Boston store window reading "Runners Welcome. Walkers Tolerated" days before the Boston Marathon. The running community and disability advocates clapped back hard. Nike pulled it within a week and replaced it with "Movement is what matters." The dust has settled – today we do the post-mortem.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/live/D8PLS9exXpU

In the WORLD FAMOUS TWO MINUTE DRILL: Ad Age announced its A-List and Creativity Award winners – a big day for the industry. Apple named John Ternus, head of hardware engineering, as its next CEO effective September 1. Tim Cook becomes Executive Chairman after 15 years leading the most valuable company on earth. Casper returned to advertising for the first time in four years with "Daymares" – dark humor spots from Orchard about how horrible the day is, so the night better deliver. Patagonia dropped a mini documentary on Instagram. The Onion now controls InfoWars. And Drake hid his "Iceman" album release date inside a giant block of ice in downtown Toronto and posted the coordinates on Instagram. Genuinely.

First on the show: Jonathan Mildenhall, CMO of the Year. He called his shot early — said Rocket could become as culturally relevant as Nike, Coca-Cola, and Airbnb. Then he built the "Own the Dream" platform, unified mortgage, real estate, and finance into one brand story, brought in John Denver and Lady Gaga for the Super Bowl, and aligned 15,000 employees under one marketing vision.

Then we have the Chili's conversation. Back-to-back Ad Age Brand of the Year. 19 straight quarters of same-store sales growth. "Fast Food Financing" drove 6 billion earned impressions — three times the target. CMO George Felix joins us to talk about how you build this kind of sustained momentum.

Mother just won Independent Agency Network of the Year. Headcount up nearly 20 percent. Revenue up over 40 percent since 2022. New business across Uber, Anthropic, Meta, Coinbase, Bacardi, and Electronic Arts. We get into it.

Last on the show: Xavier Blais, Executive Creative Director and Partner at Rethink – Ad Age's Creative Director of the Year. At 37, one of the youngest partners in Rethink's history. He led Heinz Ketchup Smoothie, Chip Dip, and IKEA Sleep Reviews. And Rethink just won Ad Age Agency of the Year.